1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of control systems. More particularly, this invention relates to distributed wireless remote control systems.
2. Background
The use of infrared (IR) remote controls has become commonplace in the electronics industry, particularly in the home electronics market. Conventional IR remote controls are typically linked to one or possibly a few specific components within the home. By way of example, a typical remote control may control an audio receiver/amplifier and compact disk (CD) player in one room of a house. Another typical remote control may control a television, a video cassette recorder (VCR), and a cable box in that same room, while yet another remote control controls a television and cable box in another room of the house. Due to the tying of remote controls to specific components, these multiple remotes are typically not interchangeable. Therefore, it can be seen that this approach creates many problems, including requiring users to maintain several different remote controls in different rooms of their home, as well as requiring users to remember which remote control(s) works with which components in which rooms of their home.
Thus, what is needed is a more generic approach to remote controls. That is, rather than having a different remote control for each component in an individual""s home, it would be beneficial to provide a way for fewer remote controls to control the components in multiple rooms of the home.
Therefore, a need exists for an addressable distributed wireless remote control system.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for use in a system includes a receiver operative to receive a request from an unidentified remote control device via a wireless communication medium. The apparatus also includes a storage medium to store an identifier which identifies the receiver in the system, and transmit logic, coupled to the receiver and the storage medium, operative to transmit both the request and the identifier to a system controller.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, an apparatus for use in a system includes a receiver to receive both a request and an identifier of a device from the device in the system. The apparatus also includes transmit logic to transmit commands to one or more components of the system and a storage medium to store a correspondence between the identifier and the one or more components. The apparatus also includes control logic, coupled to the receiver, the transmit logic, and the storage medium, to identify a component of the one or more components of the system based on the identifier of the device and to control the transmit logic to transmit a command corresponding to the request to the identified component.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, a request and an identifier of a receiver of the request are received from the receiver. A command is then issued corresponding to the request to a component based on the identifier of the receiver.